Unagi – [Sushi | Foodlore]

Description

Unagi – (Grilled Freshwater Eel.) – Hiragana: うなぎ, Katakana:ウナギ , Kanji: 鰻

• About this fish: Freshwater Eel, Grilled & glazed with a thick, sugary Nitsume sauce & often topped with tasty savory sesame seeds. Eel is always grilled and never served raw, due to toxins in its blood. They are very rich in vitamins A & B, containing up to 100x more vitamin A than other fish! Because of this vitamin boost, it’s often eaten as a stamina booster, favoured by workers and salarymen. Eels are said to be especially lucky to eat during the heat of midsummer; there’s a tradition to eat unagi on specific dates; These days are called “Doyou no Ushinohi” (土用の丑の日) or ‘The Days of the Ox.’ – Supposedly this custom began at fast food stalls in the Edo period, and was based on an older bit of chinese folklore that said that consuming food with a name beginning with “U“ would protect against the summer heat! (So, eating it on calendar dates which also started with ‘U’ would amplify that!!) – for these reasons, unagi is said to be synonymous with ‘success and moving up in life!’

[Sticker art by @Samkalensky, Part of my Nigiri Sushi/Foodlore collections.]